Check yes for college

STOCKTON - When her name was announced and she realized all her hard work had earned her a life-altering reward, Devon Pollard briefly appeared to go numb.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - When her name was announced and she realized all her hard work had earned her a life-altering reward, Devon Pollard briefly appeared to go numb.

She stood still for a moment, accepted a bear hug from her teacher, and covered her mouth with her hand.

Pollard, 18, had earned a $40,000 college scholarship, a prize any college-bound student would cherish. But Pollard's personal story made the moment not just rich but supremely bittersweet.

Two years ago, Pollard's 37-year-old father, Jamie, was one of two men who died in a scuba-diving accident at the former Harvard Mine in Jamestown. Devon now lives with her paternal grandmother, Valerie Pollard, in Lodi.

A senior at Lincoln High School's Engineering Construction Academy, Devon has had to make every penny count since her father's passing. She ekes by with financial support from her grandmother, with the money she earns working at her aunt's restaurant, and with Social Security payments she receives as a result of her father's death. She says it has been a challenge for her simply to afford gas so she can make the 20-minute drive to school.

Pollard has been accepted at California State University, San Jose. She plans to major in biomedical engineering. She wants to cure cancer. No, she says, she will cure cancer. But she wondered if she could even afford college - until learning during Thursday's ceremony of her $10,000-a-year scholarship.

"There was a little doubt," Pollard said. "Honestly, I thought I might not have been able to afford all four years."

Now it will be easier.

Pollard's scholarship comes courtesy of Clark/McCarthy, the joint venture building the new prison medical facility in south Stockton. Her winnings were the big prize Thursday as various industry partners of Lincoln's academy handed out $46,250 in scholarship funds to the program's students.

"This is the ultimate dream come true for us," said Jeff Wright, the founder of Lincoln's program and the bestower of Pollard's bear hug.

Wright's facility was a year from fruition when Pollard arrived at Lincoln High as a freshman in 2009. Back then, she was a devotee of CSI shows on television and wanted to be a forensic scientist.

But when the new building, which is named after Wright, opened the following year, Pollard was intrigued. Her initial interest quickly became a passion.

"Pretty much, I can do this every day for the rest of my life and be happy about it," she said.

Following her father's death, Wright and Pollard's comrades at the facility helped her endure. She continued to excel in her classes. She became president of Lincoln High's Future Builders Club.

Students had to apply for the Clark/McCarthy scholarship. Pollard and the other applicants submitted essays and were interviewed by a panel of judges. Mike Ricker of Clark/McCarthy called Pollard's essay "compelling" and said she "interviewed better than most college graduates we interview."

Ricker said Pollard can look forward to a "well-paid internship" this summer with Clark/McCarthy that will further ease the financial burden of college. Though Pollard's planned major relates to biomedical rather than construction engineering, it is engineering nonetheless, which is why her benefactors were willing to reward her, Ricker said.

"I am positive I will eventually do something that will save a life," Pollard said. "That's kind of the goal in life for me."

Twenty minutes after winning her scholarship, she was asked her thoughts about not being able to share her remarkable moment with her father.

"Nothing," Pollard said, appearing to fight a surge of emotion.

She paused.

"I don't know how to put this," she said, "but he knew it would work out."